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Note: Revisions occurred in the May 2018 data for Illinois, resulting in revisions to the Midwest Region, Occupational and National data. The revision did not have a significant impact on the National figure.

Online advertised vacancies decreased 171,600 to 4,480,700 in June, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL) Data Series,released today. The May Supply/Demand rate stands at 1.30 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 1.4 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was approximately 6.07 million in May.

NOTE: Recently, the HWOL Data Series has experienced a declining trend in the number of online job ads that may not reflect broader trends in the U.S. labor market. Based on changes in how job postings appear online, The Conference Board is reviewing its HWOL methodology to ensure accuracy and alignment with market trends.

REGIONAL AND STATE HIGHLIGHTS

Among the 20 largest States, all decreased

Among the 50 States, 5 increased, 42 declined, and 3 were constant

June Changes for States

In June, online labor demand grew in 5 States, declined in 42 States, and 3 were constant. All four regions experienced decreases.

The Northeast decreased 25,100 in June (Table A). New York decreased 1,500 to 275,000. New Jersey decreased 15,100 to 136,900. Massachusetts increased 900 to 139,800. Pennsylvania decreased 12,800 to 188,000. In the smaller States, Connecticut decreased 1,300 to 62,400. New Hampshire decreased 1,300 to 21,600 and Maine decreased 200 to 17,200. Rhode Island remained constant at 14,900 and Vermont increased 100 to 11,100 (Table 3).

The West decreased 16,500 in June. California decreased 11,900 to 514,700 and Colorado decreased 6,500 to 113,000. Washington decreased 5,100 to 128,800. Arizona decreased 1,400 to 89,300. Among the smaller States in theWest, Oregon decreased 400 to 69,200. Utah decreased 3,400 to 46,900. Nevada decreased 2,700 to 40,500. Idaho fell 200 to 21,700 and New Mexico decreased 100 to 24,600. Montana fell 100 to 18,000 and Hawaii decreased 100 to 20,500.

The Midwest experienced a decrease of 46,100 in June. Illinois decreased 5,800 to 178,600. Michigan decreased 7,200 to 127,000. Missouri decreased 3,200 to 83,700 and Ohio decreased 8,800 to 148,300. Minnesota decreased 4,200 to 128,000 and Wisconsin decreased 1,800 to 96,400. Among the smaller States in the region, Indiana decreased 4,300 to 75,800 and Iowa decreased 5,400 to 54,100. Nebraska decreased 200 to 28,300 and South Dakota decreased 300 to 13,100. Kansas decreased 2,600 to 35,000.

The South decreased 58,900 in June. Among the larger States in the region, Texas decreased 20,100 to 308,300. Florida decreased 10,200 to 232,400. North Carolina decreased 5,700 to 127,500. Georgia decreased 2,800 to 137,300. Virginia decreased 5,900 to 138,100. Maryland decreased 6,200 to 87,000. Among the smaller States, Tennessee decreased 4,100 to 74,900 and South Carolina decreased 3,600 to 54,600. Alabama fell 400 to 49,000. Kentucky decreased 2,400 to 44,100 and Oklahoma remained constant at 38,000. Louisiana decreased 1,500 to 38,800 and Delaware decreased 200 to 16,500.

Supply/Demand Rates: Help Wanted OnLine calculates Supply/Demand rates for the 50 States (Table 4). The data are for May 2018, the latest month for which State unemployment figures are available. There were 11 States in which the number of advertised vacancies exceeded the number of unemployed: Hawaii (0.68), North Dakota (0.68), Colorado (0.71), Minnesota (0.74), Iowa (0.77), New Hampshire (0.87), Vermont (0.88), Wisconsin (0.91), Massachusetts (0.94), Utah (0.95), and Virginia (0.97). The States with the highest Supply/Demand rates were Louisiana (2.42), Mississippi (2.27), and West Virginia (2.24), which had more than two unemployed workers for every job opening.

Please note that the Supply/Demand rate only provides a measure of relative tightness of the individual State labor markets and does not suggest that the occupations of the unemployed directly align with the occupations of the advertised vacancies.

In June, labor demand rose in 3 metro areas, declined in 48, and 1 was constant. The MSAs with the largest changes in each of the regions were: Chicago (-5,000) and Detroit (-3,700) in the Midwest; Denver (-5,100) and San Francisco (4,800) in the West; Dallas (-5,900) and Washington DC (-5,200) in the South; and New York (-11,200) and Philadelphia (-7,200) in the Northeast (See Table B and Table 5).

The Northeast decreased 25,100 in June. New York decreased 11,200 to 277,800 and Pittsburgh decreased 1,900 to 41,300. Philadelphia decreased 7,200 to 94,800. Boston fell 200 to 108,200. Providence decreased 100 to 19,600. Buffalo was constant at 16,200. Hartford fell 600 to 24,800 and Rochester increased 100 to 14,100.

The Midwest experienced a decrease of 46,100 in June. Detroit decreased 3,700 to 60,200 and Chicago decreased 5,000 to 140,900. Minneapolis-St. Paul decreased 3,800 to 89,100 and St. Louis fell 2,200 to 44,900. Indianapolis fell 2,100 to 28,400. Columbus decreased 2,400 to 31,700 and Cincinnati decreased 1,600 to 31,800. Kansas City decreased 2,400 to 35,800 and Cleveland decreased 1,800 to 27,700. Milwaukee decreased 1,000 to 28,900.

The number of postings does not, however, tell the entire story. A crucial factor is how many unemployed people are seeking jobs and how much competition there is for the jobs that are available. The Conference Board HWOL’s Supply/Demand rate relates the number of unemployed workers to the number of advertised vacancies. Based on May’s data (the latest available unemployment data for metro areas), 12 major metro areas saw more job openings than unemployed workers: San Jose (S/D rate of 0.46), Denver (0.56), Minneapolis-St. Paul (0.56), San Francisco (0.61), Honolulu (0.67), Salt Lake City (0.68), Nashville (0.76), Washington, DC (0.78), Boston (0.80), Milwaukee (0.80), Austin (0.87), and Seattle-Tacoma (0.88) (Table 6). Other favorable markets for job-seekers included Richmond (1.02) and Hartford (1.04).

In contrast, unemployed workers face great competition for each advertised position in Riverside (over 2 unemployed for every opening) as well as Houston (2 unemployed for every opening). In 50 of the 52 metro areas, however, there are now fewer than 2 unemployed per advertised opening. (See Table 6 for complete metro area Supply/Demand rates.)

OCCUPATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

In June, all of the largest ten online occupational categories posted decreases (See pdf Table C)

Occupational Changes for the Month of June

In June, all of the largest ten online occupational categories posted decreases:

Sales and related ads decreased 24,500 to 414,000. The supply/demand rate lies at 1.49, i.e. over 1 unemployed job-seeker for every advertised available opening.

Office and administrative support decreased 13,900 to 455,000. The supply/demand rate lies at 1.33, i.e. over 1 unemployed job-seeker for every advertised available opening.

PROGRAM NOTES

Special Note

Recently, the HWOL Data Series has experienced a declining trend in the number of online job ads that may not reflect broader trends in the U.S. labor market. Based on changes in how job postings appear online, The Conference Board is reviewing its HWOL methodology to ensure accuracy and alignment with market trends.

HWOL available on Haver Analytics

Over 3,000 of the key HWOL press release time series are exclusively available on Haver Analytics. The available time series include the geographic and occupational series for levels and rates for both Total Ads and New Ads. In addition to the seasonally adjusted series, many of the unadjusted series are also available. The geographic detail includes: U.S., 9 Regions, 50 States, 52 MSAs (largest metro areas). The occupational detail includes: U.S. (2-digit SOC), States (1-digit SOC) and MSAs (1-digit SOC).

The Conference BoardHelp Wanted OnLine®Data Series (HWOL) measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month for over 16,000 Internet job boards, corporate boards and smaller job sites that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas.

Like The Conference Board’s long-running Help Wanted Advertising Index of print ads (which was published for over 55 years and discontinued in July 2008), the HWOL series measures help wanted advertising, i.e. labor demand. The HWOL data series began in May 2005. With the September 2008 release, HWOL began providing seasonally adjusted data for the U.S., the nine Census regions and the 50 States. Seasonally adjusted data for occupations were provided beginning with the May 2009 release, and seasonally adjusted data for the 52 largest metropolitan areas began with the February 2012 release.

People using this data are urged to review the information on the database and methodology available on The Conference Board website and contact us with questions and comments. Background information and technical notes and discussion of revisions to the series are available at: http://www.conference-board.org/data/helpwantedonline.cfm.

Additional information on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data used in this release can be found on the BLS website, www.bls.gov.

The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membershipand research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world’s leading organizationswith the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States.

WANTED Analytics, a CEB Company

WANTED is a leading supplier of real-time business intelligence solutions for the talent marketplace. Using technology to gather data from corporate career sites and online job boards, WANTED builds products to help our users make better human capital decisions faster. Users of our products include corporate human resources departments, market analysts and employment services firms as well as the federal, state and local labor market analysts that use HWOL. For more information, please visit: www.wantedanalytics.com.

HAVER ANALYTICS®

Haver Analytics is the premier provider of time series data for the Global Strategy and Research community. Haver Analytics was founded in 1978 as a consulting firm and today provides the highest quality data and software for industry professionals. Haver provides products and services to clients in financial services, government, academia and various industry groups from consulting to manufacturing. From more information please see: http://www.haver.com/contact.html.